you will hear from bay area family members concerned about a missing relative. a new development in the ocean search for missing boaters. why authorities say it may have been a hoax. a new name in san francisco government -- at noon.

we're really worried that somebody out there out there is manipulating her, taking advantage of her. >> a worried bay area family whose loved one has gone missing. good afternoon. i'm tori campbell. a hayward family is covering the bay area with posters as they search for a 29-year-old woman. she's been missing a week and is considered vulnerable. ktvu's sal castanedo spoke with the family and has more on

where she was last seen. good afternoon, sal. >> reporter: good afternoon, tori. family members say she was last seen walking to the bus stop on her way to a job interview. 29-year-old samantha has been missing since last tuesday. she's described as a heavy-set samoan woman, 5'8" with short black hair, brown hairs last seen wearing jeans and a gray hoodie. her family says it's out of character for her to be gone for any length of time and not check in. and they also say she may be at risk due to her extreme trusting nature. >> we're worried somebody out there is manipulating her, taking advantage of her, mind controlling. that's our biggest fear. >> reporter: family members say they've been posting fliers, not only in the neighborhood but also at several b.a.r.t. stations and all over the bay area, including san francisco,

oakland and san jose. fliers are up at bus stops, convenience stores and other businesses. signs are on polls in the neighborhood since she would off go for walks on the block near her home in hayward. >> we haven't heard too much from the police. as a family, as a unit, we're doing all we can to continue to look for samantha and brick her home safely. >> reporter: family members say they did receive a call with a possible sighting in oakland. but after a search in downtown, they came up empty. they are asking anyone with information to call the hayward police, we just spoke with a hayward police officer, they say they are aware of the missing woman but so far have not located her. live in hayward, sal castanedo, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, sal. the coast guard has suspended a massive search for a family of boaters who

supposedly abandoned ship off the monterey coast on sunday. ktvu's alex savidge is live on yerba buena island. alex, the coast guard is now saying they are not certain this was a legitimate distress call? >> reporter: that's what they are going to look into. they found no signs of the missing pet boat and the commander in charge said they will be looking into the possibility this was a hoax. they also say it wouldn't be the first time somebody has sent south a phony call for help. using c-130 airplanes and coast guard cutters, searchers have scoured the ocean since sunday looking for a family who supposedly abandoned their sinking sale boat 65 miles off the monterey coast. nothing has been found in the water. today the search was called off. the coast guard commander said they are trying to figure out if this was a hoax. >> we are pursuing every avenue and you know, it certainly is a

possibility. >> reporter: the coast guard received two distressed calls late sunday from a man who said his boat was sinking. he said there were two adults and two children on board. >> coast guard, coast guard, we are bobbing shift. this is the "charm." we're abandoning ship. >> reporter: no one reported these four people missing. the coast guard can't find any record of "the charm blow." >> it's like going into a burning building as a firefighter. you don't do it unless you have to. it would be disappointing. >> reporter: while the active search in the water is over, the coast guard says they will continue to investigate the legitimacy of this distress call that came in on sunday and will bring charges if they figure out this was a hoax. by the way, the price tag for

this massive two-day search still being tal littled but the commander said -- tallied but the commander said it would probably end up being hundreds of thousands of dollars in terms of the cost. we're live this afternoon on yerba buena island, alex savidge, ktvu channel 2 news. the fbi is lepping oakland police with a manger homicide investigation after an overnight standoff ended before dawn this morning. s.w.a.t. teams surrounded a house on 88th avenue yesterday afternoon and shut down surrounding streets. this morning police said the standoff began with a shooting at 23rd and east 22nd street yesterday afternoon. no bun was hurt but police say they tracked a van to the 88th avenue home. we were told this was part of a probe into retaliatory gang kills. police made two arrests and detained several people for questioning. san jose police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who

hit and killed a woman this moring. accident happened after 1:00 a.m. at monterey and bellevue avenue. the victim was transported to a nearby hospital with life- threatening injuries and died about an hour after she was hit. one man told us this morning that visibility is poor in that area at night. >> a lot of these lights don't work. the reflectors in the road, they should have those fixed also. >> there's little information so far about the suspect's vehicle. police say it was dark in color. there's also no word yet on the victim's identity. san francisco police hope a $10,000 reward will lead to new information and help solve a cold case. 29-year-old gabriel zavala was shot to death exactly eight years ago today. his body was found in a parked car in the 100 block of valmar terrace. he was married with two children. he was an engineer at the nasa

ames center. investigators are urging anyone with information to call them. drug use is on the rise at one south bay city park. in gilroy police are trying to crack down to it because of the close proximity to a school. ktvu's janine de la vega joins us from miller park to tell us what she's observed there. good afternoon, janine. >> reporter: good afternoon, tori. all morning we've seen a group of men loitering here. we've seen cars pull up, talk to some of them. others go in and out of the bathroom. it looks suspicious and some parents wanted to stop. as dawn started to break this morning, we started to see homeless men appear in homeless park. one spoke to us admitting his friends come near to smoke marijuana and use methamphetamine. >> you will see groups all around. you know bad things are going on over there. i don't even bring my kids over there and i live right across

the street. >> reporter: this woman says a transient tried to come inside her home and she had to call police. the park is located across from a middle school. police have been receiving complaints in the neighborhood about drug and alcohol could be sumtion -- consumption. >> we want to make sure our citizens feel safe without fearing running across drug paraphernalia. >> reporter: the police have stepped up enforcement at the stop making three alcohol- related arrests. they also arrested this man, richardson cloud for -- richard st. cloud for selling marijuana at the park. >> i want our city council to step up and take care of this and make sure we have a safe community. >> reporter: police say they plan on doing extra patrols at miller park as well as two

others when they are experiencing problems. they want people in the neighborhood to know even if they don't see patrol cars, it doesn't mean that they are watching. it's possible that they are using unmarked vehicles. errorring live from gilroy, janine de la vega, ktvu channel 2 news. >> all right. thank you, janine. with three days to go before the sequester kicks in president obama and congress is making their case to the public about what needs to be done to stop billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts. president obama visited a ship building factory today in newport news, virginia and detailed the effects of the spending cuts and warned of severe consequence esto the military and the threat of -- cons ebbs wednesdays to the military and the -- consequences to the military and job layoffs for americans. >> these are cuts that don't have to happen. >> the president supports a man by senate democrats to close tax loopholes in addition to

some targeted spending cuts. however, house republicans say they've passed two bills to replace cuts to the military, air traffic control and transportation and say democrats need to compromise. >> the house has acted twice. we shouldn't have to act a third time before this senate begins to do their work. >> sequestration equals unemployment. sequestration, we don't want it. we can work here to make sure we get the job done. >> unless congress acts, $85 billion in across the board spending cuts will go into effect. ahead -- who the san francisco mayor selected to fill a vacancy on the board of supervisors. rosemary is keeping an eye out on the ocean to see if any rain is coming our way. also a tragic ending for what was supposed to be a fun- filled event overseas. that honey nut cheerios

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officials say a midair gas explosion triggered the balloon to catch fire. three victims had originally survived the crash but one of them died a few hours later. none of the tourists are believed to be american. today marks one year since trayvon martin was shot and killed in florida by george zimmerman. people plan to mark the day with vigils across the country. martin's death has sparked several protests about racial profiling. zimmerman faces second-degree murder charges but says he shot the seen in self-defense. people here in the bay area plan to wear hoodies and hold signs demanding justice for trayvon tonight at hegenberger and international boulevard in east oakland. in walnut creek five senior citizens at a care facility that caught fire last night have been moved to a new location. this comes after a fire broke out at their senior care

facility on bai gorry place. firefighters say it was difficult to get the residents out of the home since they were bedridden or in wheelchairs. all five patients were treated for smoke inhalation. one of them was still in the hospital today. new at noon, san francisco mayor ed lee announced a replacement for outgoing supervisor carmen chu. surrounded by a group of city officials he said he's appointing her long-time legislative aide katie tang to fill the position. lee said he made the decision after talking to people in district 4 and other candidates and that tang was the perfect fit. >> i came to the conclusion that we have one of the finest, smartest legislative aides, someone who knows city hall, who knows the workings of the board. >> lee appointed chu as the city's new assessor recorder.

chu and tang will be sworn in tomorrow. the family of an oakland couple missing in south america is holding out hope for their safe return. family members say they've not heard from jamie neal or garrett hand since january 25th. in their last facebook posting, the couple of said they were going to -- the couple said they were going to lima. witnesses saw the couple on february 16th in the town of eketos and they wanted to go on a boat trip on the amazon. despite the new clue, there's another concern. >> all of the financial transactions also stopped on january 25th. so as a mom, i'm thinking how is my son getting by with no money. >> hand's mother says before her son vanished, he was taking out $200 at a time. the state department says peruvian authorities are making assurances that they are doing everything they can to locate the couple.

we've learned what pope benedict xvi will be called. he will be known as emmiree tis -- eemeritus pope. when the pope officially steps do you on thursday, he will be the first pontiff to do so in -- steps down on thursday, he will be the first pontiff to do so in 600 years. the building at pier 27 will start small and then think big. it will be the america's cup headquarters hosting ka that marines from march through october and then a second phase of construction will add a -- catamarans from march through october and then a second plays of construction will add a terny nal -- terminal. later today, the san jose

city council will get its first look at the latest development plan for a five-acre parcel land in the city's japan town area. jackson and sixth street was used in the past to store and maintain city-owned vehicles. city leaders are now considering a big change to the area. they will consider building new homes and stores and possibly a new city park. san jose city leaders will propose a ban on styrofoam containers. supporters say this would also help the amount of litter in waterways. some are concerned they will have to pay more for eco- friendly containers. the council is expected to vote on a draft today. if approved, a final vote could happen this summer. some prominent republicans are showing their support for

same-sex marriage. hewlett-packard's ceo, meg whitman, is among them. that's despite the fact that she supported proposition 8 when she ran for governor in california in 2010 and john huntsman also signed the legal brief. he opposed this during his 2012 presidential bid but last week announced his new position. the second deadly blizzard in a week is moving towards the great plains towards the upper midwest. the nicaragua -- the national guard was called in. roads are said to be impassible. three people are reportedly dead because of the storm. the national weather service is calling this a crippling historic blizzard. sunny, mild weather in the forecast for today and the week ahead looks quite pleasant if you like it dry and mild. giving you a live look over the

bay. wall-to-wall sunshine out today. air quality is good. if you like the rain we're not gonna see it. i'm missing it too. right now the winds are blowing quite strong in fairfield, 17 miles an hour. notice the arrow coming from the north. a northerly flow continuing for the afternoon even an offshore breeze at half moon bay. i'm seeing it in the number here. 64 degrees at half moon bay. warmer than san francisco holding at 60 as well as oakland. 67 walnut creek, 63 in fairfield. numbers anywhere from 2 to 5 degrees from where we were yesterday. napa nearly 9 degrees warmer. so the ridge of high pressure continuing to build and strengthen as it moves in towards california. we'll see a warming trend that will take us into the low 70s eventually. i will show you that in a second. maybe a few high clouds at times. but this ridge again over california will be building

over the next couple days. what would we expect? yesterday, temperatures ranged in the low to mid-60s. today we'll be low to mid-60s. even some of us gonna get to the 70s. friday looks like it will be the warmest day. this is what you can expect in the afternoon -- 67 for santa rosa today. 68 in napa. so again, some of us already going to see upper 60s. these numbers anywhere from 3 to 6 above average. 63 in berkeley. 65 in oakland. concord, 6 a. concord you -- 65. concord you are typically 62. 64 san jose. 64 los gatos. a gorgeous day in santa cruz. mid-60s in the forecast. here's your extended forecast. there goes the numbers. afternoon highs upper 60s for tomorrow. low 70s, thursday, friday, holding onto this pattern

through at least saturday. we have a system that will bring our temperatures down a little bit. a little cooler on sunday. still remaining dry with the uptick of the afternoon highs, our lows will go to the 40s in time for the weekend. >> thank you, rosemary. >> you are welcome. it's a big day for highly -- for a highly-red member of our ktvu news team who happens to be a great lady and a wonderful friend. the city of oakland declared today, rita williams day. she officially received the official proclamation that honors her award-winning careers as a ground-breaking journalist. she's retiring tomorrow. she will be sorely missed. the moods of investors are upbeat on wall street. you will hear why and some bay area people taking a stand to try to save a local post office from closing.

strong earnings from home depot and macy's lifted stocks today, this after a big selloff yesterday due to concerns about a political deadlock in italy that could cause the european debt crisis to flare up again. the dow is up 101. the nasdaq is up 8. s&p up 7. and after three months of declines, americans' confidence in the economy rebounded in february. the new york-based conference

board says its consumer confidence index as at 69.6 compared to 58.4 in january. it's the highest reading since november but it's still well below the 90 reading associated with a healthy economy. owners of drake's bay oyster farm are celebrating a legal victory that should allow them to stay open until at least may. a federal court panel ruled that the company can keep operating while an appeals court considers the eviction order. the company was ordered to shut down next month after the secretary of interior decided not to renew its lease. the oyster farm's legal challenge to that order is scheduled to be heard in may. this evening supporters of the downtown berkeley post office hope to make enough noise to keep their post office open. the postal service wants to shut down the post office building on alston way. many residents say they rely on the current location and love the art work that's part of the building.

the postal service says it has to sell the building to save money. the rally is at 6:00 at the city hall. thank you for trusting ktvu channel 2 news. we'll see you the next time news breaks and also again at 5:00. we're always here for you at ktvu.com and mobile ktvu.com.